More than 100 million Americans have cast their vote in the 2020 US presidential election before Election Day despite the risks posed by the ongoing deadly pandemic.

According to the US Elections Project watchdog 100.2 million Americans voted nationwide by depositing their ballot in drop boxes or casting their vote at polling stations ahead of the vote on Tuesday.

The early ballots represent more than 72 percent of the 136.5 million ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, according to the tally by the watchdog based at the University of Florida.

Nationwide pre-Election Day voting reached the record figure amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and 231,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the US.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s election campaign events increased the cases of COVID-19 by more than 250 per 100,000 residents of the counties where these the rallies were held.